History

The very first mentions of the first pilgrimage church, forming part of the Sadów parish, date back to the 15th century. The surviving historical sources also indicate that the church in question, located some distance away from the erstwhile village of Koszęcin itself, was erected on the site of a miraculous apparition witnessed by three young children; the water spring located on that spot was believed to possess miraculous qualities. The original church was destroyed in 1720 and was subsequently replaced with the current, much larger structure, erected in the years 1721-1724. The church enjoyed a substantial following as a local sanctuary, attracting pilgrims from the surrounding area and forming a regional centre of the worship of the Holy Trinity. In the 18th century, the church received its Baroque fixtures and fittings, which survive to this day. Renovation works were performed during the years that followed. A comprehensive restoration of the church took place in the 1960s and involved the demolition of the southern porch, which was replaced by an added section of the existing cloister-like walkway surrounding the church.

Description

The church is an oriented structure, situated in the southern part of Koszęcin, at the intersection of the Trójcy and Sobieskiego streets, surrounded by a small parish cemetery - still in active use - circumscribed by a brick perimeter fence. The church is a wooden log structure with stone foundations, added at a later date, with the tower featuring a post-and-beam structure. The church consists of the nave, designed on a rectangular floor plan, a narrower chancel with a semi-hexagonal termination and a rectangular tower. The compact body of the church is clearly divided into the chancel and the nave, both of which feature separate gable roofs of different height, with the chancel roof being surmounted by a steeple. The entire silhouette of the church is dominated by the squat tower with slightly tapering walls, crowned with a bulbous cupola with a roof lantern on top. A tall annex covered with a gable roof, containing the sacristy, the patrons’ gallery at the first-floor level and the staircase, adjoins the southern side of the chancel, while a small side porch stands against the northern wall of the nave. The nave and the chancel are surrounded by cloister-type walkways featuring mono-pitched roofs supported by sturdy wooden posts. The individual roofs and the upper sections of the chancel and nave walls are clad with wood shingles, while the walls of the chancel and the nave at the walkway level feature an exposed log structure. The tower, the sacristy and the southern porch are clad with weatherboards. Single rectangular window openings pierce the walls above the skirt roofs of the cloister-like walkways. The interiors of the chancel and the nave are separated by a chancel arch wall featuring a rectangular aperture with rounded corners, intersected by a wooden rood beam. Both the chancel and the nave feature flat, coved ceilings, with a wooden beamed ceiling used for the sacristy. A wooden doorway leading into the sacristy, topped with a segmental arch, is located in the southern wall of the chancel. A wide aperture of the former patrons’ gallery is positioned directly above the doorway. A wooden organ gallery supported by four profiled posts occupies the western part of the nave. The gallery features a rectangular projecting middle section, its edges secured by means of a planked parapet. Notable surviving fixtures and fittings include the main altarpiece from the 18th century, incorporating a Late Gothic Pietà sculpture and a Baroque painting of the Holy Trinity in its top section, the 18th-century side altarpieces (including the northern altarpiece adorned with the sculptures of St Barbara and St Therese and the paintings of The Virgin and Child with St. Anne and St John of Nepomuk as well as the southern altarpiece incorporating the figure of St John of Nepomuk), the Late Baroque pulpit and baptismal font, the bas-reliefs of the Holy Trinity (first half of the 18th century) and the painting portraying the legend which tells of the establishment of the church, bearing the date “1564”.

The historic monument is accessible. The church is made available to visitors upon prior telephone appointment.

compiled by Agnieszka Olczyk, Regional Branch of the National Heritage Board of Poland in Katowice, 21-10-2014.

Bibliography

• Architectural monument record sheet. Parish church of the Holy Trinity [in Koszęcin], compiled by L. Pyrkosz, Archive of the National Heritage Board of Poland.
• Katalog zabytków sztuki w Polsce, Vol. VI, woj. katowickie, issue 8: Powiat lubliniecki, ed. I. Rejduch-Samkowa, J. Samek, Warsaw 1960, pp. 15-17.
• Matuszczak J., Kościoły drewniane na Śląsku, Wrocław 1975.
• Myrcik J., Koszęcińskie kościoły i kapliczki, Tarnowskie Góry 1998, pp. 22-25.
• Zabytki Sztuki w Polsce. Śląsk, S. Brzezicki, C. Nielsen (eds.), Warsaw 2006, pp. 433-434.